Tobacco is used in many different ways around the world, but the global predominance is the use of manufactured cigarettes, which account for 96% of total worldwide sales, and hence involves big business rather than small, local, rural enterprises.

The next largest components are the smoking of bidis in South-East Asia, the chewing of tobacco in India, the smoking of kreteks in Indonesia, and the use of moist snuff, which originated in Sweden but is now becoming global.

New forms of tobacco (and of its component nicotine) are constantly being invented, while older forms historically localized to specific regions of the world (such as the hookah and bidi) are becoming global. For instance, kreteks and moist snuff are currently being marketed to youth in many countries. These regional forms of tobacco sometimes gain footholds in new countries based on their exotic cachet, but to date they have not displaced manufactured cigarettes for a significant market share. Instead, they frequently serve as a gateway to addiction, luring youth and other fad smokers into lifelong dependence on nicotine.

New forms of tobacco may not be covered by existing tobacco control legislation and are thus a challenge to countries seeking to reduce the epidemic (especially to reduce youth uptake).